Posts Tagged ‘off-season’
Kudos to the Crew!
Added: November 16th, 2009 | Be the first to add a comment »
I am sure all of you out there truly believe we have nothing better to do but sit around during the winter months at Big Surf, but I will tell you now….it’s not true! What we do is definitely different this time of year than during the warm summer months, but we aren’t sitting around (unless you are talking about the lovely office dwellers that are hard at work behind desks).
Day after day I arrive to the park between 8 and 8:30 and notice something different each day. Mike and Harold have been hard at work making this place look great, even with no visitors! For those of you who have visited, you know we have the most beautiful landscaped entrance around. During the summer it has beautiful flowers and shrubbery as well as a flowing creek that serves as home to our resident Koi. During the winter it is still beautiful, less colorful, but still beautiful thanks to these guys.
Just the other day, they came through and trimmed our shrubs and plants. Weeded out the creek and I do have to say….it looks marvelous out there! Good for you, Mike and Harold, for keeping our park looking great year-round!
The First Cut
Added: October 15th, 2009 | Be the first to add a comment »
You know the saying, “Beauty is pain?” On October 12th, I lived that. As I lay in the bin at an Osage Beach hardware store, two fine-looking ladies came to what I thought was my rescue.
The first thing they did was push me around in this horrible cage-like contraption. If I had arms and legs, I could’ve crawled out, but I swiftly came to the conclusion that wouldn’t be happening. I was then stuck between two pansies (literally, pansy flowers) in the back of a white van. What a ride that was! If I were a bettin’ man, I’d bet the driver was a racecar driver in his spare time!
We shortly arrived at our destination. I was so relieved until one of the pretty ladies began unpacking some shiny-looking sharp things. The sweat began to pour. I’d always heard stories about this, but had never seen it with my own eyes!
*The following details carry a parental advisory warning a.k.a. very gory stuff!
The pretty lady in the green sweater took me outside and proceeded to cut my top off! The other one approached me and gutted me! She scooped and scraped out my insides. I sat outside in the cold for a while like that with my guts lying on the ground beneath me. The green sweater lady came back out and carried me in, but the pain was not over, it had only begun. She put paper over my face and poked holes all over me. When she took off the paper, it only got worse. She grabbed a really long, sharp thing and I couldn’t watch any longer. What ensued was the worse pain I had ever felt. She sliced and diced pieces of me away for what felt like hours and then, it all stopped.
When I felt it was safe to look, I did. Much to my surprise, it was magnificent-I was magnificent! Never in my life had I felt and looked so wonderful. I was a work of art-a masterpiece!
Me....after the pain.
Off Season? What Off Season??
Added: April 27th, 2009 | Be the first to add a comment »
When I tell people that I work at Big Surf, they often roll their eyes and say something like, Wow, I bet your summers are crazy. And yes, they are - in a good way. But what most people don’t realize is that all the really hard work happens between September and May, while we’re closed. That’s when we make repairs, do necessary maintenance, re-paint every inch of the park, and work to get everything ready for next season. We’re calling on our group customers and taking bookings, and of course working out the new media campaign.
Every off-season is different. For example, this year we’ve installed a brand new software system to enhance our ticketing capabilities, and we’ve completely re-designed and re-printed every sign in the park. Missy has been working hard to give our Gift Shop a terrific revamp. (I think you’ll be delighted with the new merchandise that will be available this year.) We’ve also been in negotiations with the local Subway shops to come up with an absolutely killer discount package for you, and we’re looking forward to announcing that shortly. We’ve laid a bunch of new concrete, and constructed a brand new party area. We’ve completely redesigned our website - and of course, we have our new shark mascots to play with. Huh. Now I’ve written all that down, no wonder I’m exhausted.
After all that, maybe it’s no surprise that we all look forward to welcoming our guests into our park so much. We’re keen to see the fruits of all that behind-the-scenes labor. Memorial Day weekend is always a long time coming!
